Suddenly, I felt «something», so I glanced over at the main battlefield for just an instant.
The Kobold king threw away both the bone axe in its right hand and the leather shield in its left down onto the ground simultaneously. It gave another roar and brought its hand to the back of its waist. It grasped a handle bound roughly in tattered cloth, and pulled out its brutally long «Talwar».
During the early days of the beta, I'd seen this attack pattern change motion many times. From here on, it would only use the sword skills from the curved blade category until it died. Although its savage appearance in a berserk state was terrifying, it was actually easier to deal with than its earlier state. Since the techniques it used were only straight long-ranged vertical cuts, if the trajectory of the skill was firmly grasped when it was launched, one could avoid it even when sticking close to the boss.
Under Diabel's command, the six people that formed Group C
surrounded the boss. This was a formation that couldn’t be used while the boss still wielded the bone axe that performed horizontal attacks. Really, I hadn’t expected at all that reading the book beforehand allowed them to come up with such precise directions. As long as the six could avoid the wild swings of the Talwar until the final blow……
"………Huh…?"
From the back of my throat, that noise was subconsciously leaked out.
The object of player X, who had entrusted to Kibaou the large sum of forty thousand col in order to try to buy my sword, was to interfere with me performing the LA on the Kobold king. I had already guessed that much. Even though my sword had not been taken, the goal of X had been mostly achieved. As part of the raid's extra force, I could only deal with the Sentinels, so I couldn't even approach within ten meters of the boss.
However, if it is like this.
The identity of X, at this moment, is a player who is attempting to LA the boss—that should be correct, right? After all, paying forty thousand gold is far too large a sum of money just to hinder me.
Being able to LA the boss themselves should be more than enough to cover that expense.
In other words…the player X manipulating Kibaou, the man knew about my past in the beta test, his name is…..
"—It's coming!"
Asuna’s sharp words instantly roused me out of my momentary thoughts. The Sentinel swung its halberd, and I subconsciously used the diagonally cutting sword skill «Slant», repelling his weapon with all my strength.
"Switch!"
I shouted, and then jumped backward, as Asuna exchanged with me and went in front of the guard. I once again glanced at the battlefield twenty meters away to my left.
After the motion during which the boss couldn’t be attacked was finished, the battle resumed. The first locked target was the blue haired knight, who had calmly avoided the first strike.
With his back facing me, I wondered to myself.
—Is it you?
—Diabel the knight, are you…Is everything part of your plan……?
Of course he didn't answer. Instead, Illfang roared and howled, and then it slowly raised the blade in its right hand up high in a slow curve……
Once again, the sensation of «something» picked the center of my head.
A sense of discomfort. Something was different. This boss monster and the Kobold king that I knew were just slightly different. It was not its color. Nor its size. Nor its face and voice. The source of the discomfort wasn’t from its body…it was the weapon in its right hand.
From where I was, only the silhouette of the sword was visible, but…wasn’t that blade too thin? The gently curved blade was certainly similar to the one I was familiar with during the beta test period, but its width. .as well as its gleam, was different. It wasn’t the rough texture of cast iron. It was the tint of forged, polished steel. I have seen a weapon similar to that before…on the tenth floor of the old floating castle. A curved sword wielded by a very formidable foe dressed in red armor at the end of the beta period.
Unusable by players, it was in the monster-use category, called……
"Ah…Aah……!"
A strangled sound came out from my throat. I forcefully sucked air into my narrowing air ducts, and bellowed out as loud as I could.
"D…Don’t do it, fall back!! Retreat quickly——!!"
But, my voice was drowned out by the sound effects of Illfang's sword skill.
The Kobold king's huge body shook the floor, as it jumped up high.
It turned its body in mid-air, while accumulating power to its weapon. As it fell down, it used the accumulated power, releasing a crimson beam of light.
Trajectory—horizontal. Angle of attack—three hundred and sixty degrees.
Katana-use sword skill, the heavy ranged attack «Tsumujiguruma»15.
Six vivid red light effects appeared, looking like pillars of blood.
The HP gauge that was displayed on the left side of our field of vision, showing Group C's average HP, immediately dropped below fifty percent and became dyed yellow. I could see the six individual HP gauges of the six player if you touched the gauge with my finger, but there was no point in doing it now. Everyone in Group C had obviously received nearly equal amounts of damage.
Though a ranged attack, it also had a tremendous power that was enough to take out more than half of one’s HP, but the technique’s affect didn’t stop there. Yellow lights rotated around the heads of the six people that had collapsed on the floor. This was temporary state of being unable to move for a period time—the stun effect.
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15 Tsumujiguruma: Kanji is旋車, which basically means “whirling wheel”
Of the dozens of bad statuses in SAO, being stunned wasn’t as scary as paralysis or blindness, as the effect lasted at most ten seconds. However, once the effect started, there was no way to recover from it. Therefore, if the front members were stunned, their friends must save them by diving in front without waiting for the switch, and must become the target to draw enemy fire— however.
Not a single person moved to help. Having a detailed strategy meeting in advance. Filling themselves with a mood of an easy victory that had continued thus far. And having the person everyone relied on, their leader Diabel, be struck down in a single blow. These reasons, combined together, tied down the bodies of everyone aside from Group C. Within the strained silence, the Kobold Lord recovered from the long delay caused by using its super skill.
Coming to my senses at last, I tried to shout out.
"Charge…"
At the same time, in the front lines, the two handed axe user Agil and several other players tried to move in to support the others.
But, it was too late.
"Uguruo!!"
The demi human roared, and the katana—no, the nodachi16in both its hands was moved away from its trajectory close to the floor and raised up high. Sword skill «Ukifune»17. It was aimed for the Knight Diabel, who had fallen right in front of it. As if pulled by a pale red arc of light, the knight in silver armor was sent flying high up into the air. The damage wasn't much. However, the Kobold Lord's movements didn't stop there.
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16 Nodachi: A curved blade like the katana, but much longer.
17 Ukifune: Kanji is浮舟, which basically means “floating boat”
Its large wolf-like mouth grinned ferociously.
The nodachi was once again wrapped in a red light effect.
«Ukifune» was the start of a skill combo. If you were hit by it while in the air, it was useless to struggle, so you could only defend by curling up. However, it was impossible for a person who was dealing with this situation for the first time.
While in the sky, Diabel brandished his sword, trying to pull off a sword skill to counterattack. However, because he was unstable, the system could not determine the starting motion for the skill.
The huge nodachi directly hit the front of the knight as he waved his sword uselessly.
At a speed which could not be seen by the eye, the combination attack continued with a further strike followed by a thrust. A three hit strike, this skill's name was «Hiōgi»18.
The bright colors and crashing sounds of the three consecutive damage effects that engulfed the knight’s body showed that all the attacks were critical hits. His avatar was blasted away 20 meters, over the heads of the raid members, and fell as if piercing into the ground near me, as I faced the last of the Sentinels. He fell almost as if piercing the ground. His HP gauge, which was already crimson, began to reduce further from the right end.
"……!!"
I gasped out a strange sound from the back of my throat, and I attacked the Sentinel’s halberd that was approaching in front of me with a «Slant» that contained all my strength. The halberd's handle was cut apart in the middle, and as it stood stunned for a short duration Asuna's rapier pierced through its throat.
With ascertaining for the monster's shattering effect with my own eyes, I turned towards the body of the fallen Diabel.
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18 Hiōgi: Kanji is緋扇, which basically means “scarlet fan”
Seeing the knight’s eyes from the short distance of one meter for the first time, I felt sparks race through my mind.
—I recognize this player.
His name and appearance were completely different from what I remembered, but we had definitely previously met face to face in the other Aincrad, and maybe I had even talked to him. As expected, Diabel was an original beta tester like me. And like me, he had fought while hiding his past until today. No, since he had made close friends while hiding his past, the pressure on him was probably several times more than mine.
However, precisely because he had an original tester's knowledge, he was harmed by it when it came to final stage of breaking through the first floor.
Although I do not remember him, he had had probably been convinced that I, Kirito, was the player with the same name, although with a different face, who was good at placing the LA on the boss during the beta testing period. And, he believed that I would probably try to do the same thing here. A Floor Boss’s rare drop items were unique and high power items, and by getting it one’s fighting power could sharply rise. In the current deathtrap that SAO has become, combat ability is synonymous with survivability. Diabel, in order to survive in this world—not as an isolated solo player, but as a Knight at the head of a group—had tried to get the rare drop from Illfang by any means.
It seemed like Diabel has also guessed that I had realized all that in that moment. His eyes, as blue as his hair, twitched for an instant, but immediately after emitted a kind of pure light. From his trembling lips, he spoke in a voice soft enough for only me to hear.
"…I leave the rest to you, Kirito-san. The boss, defea—"
Before his sentence ended—
The commander of the Aincrad Boss Raid Forces, the Knight Diabel, turned into blue shards of glass, and then scattered in all directions.
14
Uwaaaaa, this kind of cry—or rather, scream filled the Boss room.
Nearly all the raid members clutched their weapons as if clinging to them, with their wide eyes open. But no one moved. The leader being first to fall, no, to die was a situation beyond any of our expectations, so no one could decide what to do next.
Of course, this was also true for me.
In my mind, two options alternately blinked. To flee, or to fight.
In normal circumstances, when suffering from such large disasters as «a boss using weapons and skills different from information previously obtained» and the «loss of the leader», everyone should immediately retreat out of the boss room. However, if we turned our backs to Illfang with his long-range Katana skills while we retreated, the ten people furthest to the back, or in the worst case more than that, would end up stunned and deprived of all their HP by consecutive attacks like Diabel. Though I say that, even if we retreated while facing forward to protect ourselves, it would be difficult against an opponent with unknown skills. It would be expected that an equal number of people would gradually lose their HP and die during the time required to dash out of the room.
And most of all, with that many deaths—including the leader— and with the boss battle having failed, there was the risk of never again being able to assemble another force raid party of the same scale. In other words, the attempt to clear the death game called SAO would fail. The eight thousand survivors would not be warriors of the virtual world, but prisoners trapped in the first floor until there is some kind of «end»…
Then, two sounds echoed out at the same time, stirring me from my hesitation.
One of them was, right at the front lines, the sound of Illfang, who had come out of its delay, starting to rampage again. With a metallic sound and a shriek, the mass damage effects violently shook the dim lighting.
The other sound was the voice of Kibaou, who was kneeling next to me.
"……Why…Why…Diabel-han, why were you, the leader, the first to…"
—Because he tried to perform the LA on the boss.
Telling him like this would be easy. However, I didn't say anything.
Now that I think about it, in the first meeting, Kibaou’s actions had been a flared up act by Diabel. Diabel had perfectly attempted to lead the conversation towards radical remarks like not becoming comrades with beta testers if they didn’t apologize and give an unfair contribution of their assets without obstructing the topic.
That scene was probably a reward—no, not a term of bargaining from Diabel to Kibaou. In exchange for making Kibaou do the troublesome job of negotiating to buy my sword, Diabel gave him the opportunity to clear again the anger towards original testers that was smoldering inside Kibaou at the raid meeting. Agil's logical argument ended it halfway through, but if the boss battle ended as planned today, they probably planned to bring up the same topic again somehow at the review meeting afterwards. In other words, Kibaou did not suspect that Diabel was an original tester. He believed and was convinced that Diabel was a representative of the regular players taking a stand against the dirty testers. Was there any meaning in me giving him a further shock to him by telling him my deductions?
Instead—I grabbed Kibaou's left shoulder as he hanged his hand downwards, and forced him up.
"Is this the time to be discouraged!?"
When I gave that low shout, Kibaou's small eyes were instantly filled with a familiar hostility.
"…What…What did you say?"
"If you, the Group E leader, become a coward, your companions will die! Listen here, additional Sentinels may still spawn…no, they will definitely spawn. Handling them is your responsibility!"
"…Then, what will you do? Are you planning on escaping alone!?"
"As if I would. Of course I…"
Ringing the Anneal Blade in my right hand, I said,
"—Will get the LA on the boss!"
In the one month since I had become trapped in this world, I had taken many actions to keep only myself alive. I hadn't dispensed the knowledge I had obtained during the beta test period to anyone, in order to take advantage of the hunting grounds and quests that were more efficient while single-mindedly strengthening myself.
If I were to stick to a solo player's normal code of conduct, then in this situation, I should run towards the exit while many raid members are still standing between the Boss monster and myself.
Without turning back even as the raging Kobold king kills my comrades, instead I should actively using them as shields, in order to ensure my own safety.
However, at this instant, no such thoughts came to my mind.
Something fiery ran through my veins, and both my legs head towards the brink of life and death. This may have been because of the words the knight Diabel had left me.
The boss—
defeat it. Those were the words he had tried to say. Not ‘escape with everyone’. He had persisted in trying to get the Last Attack in order to significantly boost his probability of acquiring rare items, and as a result he had lost his life, but his command ability was definitely outstanding. That Diabel, in his last moments, had decided not to ask us to «withdraw» but instead to do «bloody battle». Therefore, as a member of the raid party, I will comply with his wish…no, his dying wish.
However, there was still one doubt that remained in me.
Before the battle began, I had secretly decided. Instead of protecting myself, I would protect the rapier user «Asuna»'s life with everything I had. She had a radiant talent which I did not possess. For this bud to perish before it blooms was an absolutely unacceptable situation for anyone fascinated by VRMMO games.19
Just before I started to run forward, I looked at Asuna who stood to my left, and was about to tell her "Stay in the back and if the front collapses, you should withdraw immediately". However, as if she could read my mind, before I opened my mouth, she declared decisively,
"I'm going too. We're partners, after all."
I did not have a good reason to deny her, and there was no time for debate. After hesitating for an instant, I nodded.
"…Understood. I'll be relying on you."
The two of us turned in the same direction at the same time, and started running towards the back of the hall.
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19 By Pryun: In this sentence Kirito is saying that, "for the bud (which refers to Asuna) to perish (ie: be killed) before it blooms (before Asuna grows to reach her full potential), would be an extremely unacceptable situation for any person (Kirito included) who is fascinated by VRMMOs (ie: takes VRMMOs seriously)."
Along the way, we heard constant roars and screams. Although it seemed that there were no more deaths following Diabel's, the average HP of the vanguard was less than half altogether, and for Group C who had lost their leader, they were down below twenty percent. Some players were in complete despair and were just trying to escape, and at this rate the formation would fall apart within a few dozen seconds.
Sword Art Online Progressive - Volume 01 Page 10